Editorial: Romney’s unhelpful advice on Syria

Thursday

May 31, 2012 at 12:01 AMMay 31, 2012 at 9:27 AM

They wanted Obama to show “leadership” just as long as he didn’t get us into another war, spend a lot of money, put U.S. military assets at risk or put American boots on the ground. Other than that, “Go get ‘em, Mr. President.”

They wanted Obama to show “leadership” just as long as he didn’t get us into another war, spend a lot of money, put U.S. military assets at risk or put American boots on the ground. Other than that, “Go get ‘em, Mr. President.”

They also gleefully derided his unfortunately named strategy of “leading from behind.” However, it worked. The U.S. did some air support of the rebels, but largely it coordinated with France, Italy and the Arab nations that did the bulk of the military heavy lifting, and in October, Gadhafi was killed and his regime fell.

There are still sporadic lethal clashes among ethnic groups and rival rebel militias and the new government is straining to exert its authority over the country, but otherwise Libya has dropped off the American radar screen and completely off the list of Republican talking points.

Now Mitt Romney, freshly anointed as the presumptive Republican nominee and tacit supporter of Donald Trump’s birther delusions, is criticizing Obama for a “lack of leadership” and “policy of paralysis” on Syria.

Romney has demanded that the U.S. pressure Russia to stop selling arms to Syria and to stop blocking sanctions against the Assad regime. He neglected to say quite how he would do that, since a simmering resentment against the United States now seems embedded in Russian foreign policy and new President Vladimir Putin has declined to meet with Obama.

Besides, Romney and other Republicans have derided Obama’s efforts to “reset” relations with Russia. They pounced when a live mic caught Obama promising more “flexibility” toward Russia after the election. Do they really think the way to get Russia to be more cooperative on issues like Syria is for the U.S. president to be less flexible and more belligerent?

Romney also called for arming the Syrian “opposition.” Which particular opposition? There is the Syrian National Council, the National Coordination Committee, the Syrian Patriotic Group, the Free Syria Army, the Free Officers Movement, the Syrian Liberation Army and a half-dozen or more groups that style themselves as martyrs’ brigades.

Somewhere in that group are undoubtedly radical Islamic groups that don’t like the Assad regime and don’t have much use for us, either.

And like Iraq, Syria is divided between Sunnis and Shiites although here the Sunnis are the overwhelming majority. We didn’t handle that sectarian divide all that well in Iraq. It’s doubtful we’ve gotten any better at it in the meantime.

Maybe Romney should show some real “leadership” on Syria so we can see what that means. If he believes the U.S. should intervene militarily in Syria, he should say so now, before the election.

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